I was standing near him, waiting orders. We heard a well-maintained fire of musketry; the Russians were repulsing one of our brigades. Hearing this sound, the emperor ordered me to take the Mamelukes, two squadrons of chasseurs, one of grenadiers of the guard, and to observe the state of things. I set off at full gallop, and, before advancing a cannon-shot, perceived the disaster. The Russian cavalry had penetrated our squares, and were sabring our men. In the distance could be perceived masses of Russian cavalry and infantry in reserve. At this juncture, the enemy advanced; four pieces of artillery arrived at a gallop, and were planted in position against us. On my left I had the brave Morland, on my right General d'Allemagne. "Courage, my brave fellows!" cried I to my party; "behold your brothers, your friends butchered; let us avenge them, avenge our standards! Forward!" These few words inspired my soldiers; we dashed at full speed upon the artillery, and took them. The enemy's horse, which awaited our attack were overthrown by the same charge, and fled in confu sion, galloping, like us, over the wrecks of our own squares. In the mean time the Russians rallied; but, a squadron of horse grenadiers coming to our assistance, I could then halt, and await the reserves of the Russian guard. Again we charged, and this charge was terrible. The brave Morland fell by my side. It was absolute but chery. We fought man to man, and so mingled together, that the infantry on neither side dared to fire, lest they should kill their own men. The intrepidity of our troops finally bore us in triumph over all opposition: the enemy fled in disorder in sight of the two Emperors of Austria and Russia, who had taken their station on a rising ground, in order to be spectators of the contest. They ought to have been satisfied, for I can assure you they witnessed no child's play. For my own part, my good friend, I never passed so delightful a day. The emperor received me most graciously when I arrived to tell him that the victory was ours; I still grasped my broken sabre, and as this scratch upon my head bled very copiously, I was all covered with blood. He named me general of division. The Russians returned not again to the charge, they had had enough; we captured every thing, their cannon, their baggage, their all in short; and Prince Ressina was among the prisoners.'

BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ.

We also attach Savary's account of the battle of Austerlitz, which is as follows:

'Napoleon now thought of nothing but the preparatory dispositions for the battle, which he resolved to delay no longer. Bernadotte joined him with two divisions of infantry; Soult had three; Marshal Lannes two; the united grenadiers formed a strong one; the footguards one. Marshal Davoust had one within reach the emperor had, besides his light cavalry, three divisions of dragoons, two of cuirassiers, and two regiments of carabineers, with the horse-guards. He caused abundance of provisions and animunition of all kinds, taken from the magazines of Brunn, to be brought upon the ground.

It was the last day of November, 1805; the next day, the 1st of December, he himself placed all the divisions of the army: he knew his ground as well as the environs of Paris.

Marshal Davoust was on the extreme right, en echelons, on the communication from Brunn to Vienna, by Nicolsburg. His right division was commanded by General Friant: it was this that acted with us. Davoust was separated from the corps of Marshal Soult by ponds, which presented long narrow defiles, and of difficult communication. Marshal Soult was also on the right of that part of the army which was opposed to the Russian army. His right division was that of General Legrand, who was close to the ponds which separated him from General Friant. On the left of General Legrand was the division of Saint Hilaire, and on the left of the latter tha. of General Vandamme. In the second line, behind Marshal Soult, was first the division of united grenadiers, and on their left were the two divisions of Marshal Bernadotte. On the left of Marshal Soult, upon a configuration of ground somewhat more advanced, was the corps of Marshal Lannes, having its first division (that of General Caffarelli) on the right of the road from Olmutz to Brunn, and its second division (that of General Suchet) supported on its right upon the same road, and on its left upon the Centon.

The infantry of the guard was the natural reserve of Marshal Lannes. As the ground on our left seemed to offer an extensive space, it was deemed prudent not to place the cavalry at a distance from it: the light cavalry therefore was first put on the right of Marshal Lannes, where it did not at all incommode the corps of Marshal Soult, which was on a vast plateau, a little in the rear, and to the right. Behind the light cavalry were placed the dragoons. The cuirassiers also remained that day near the corps of Marshal Soult, with the horse-guards.

'The emperor passed the whole day on horseback, inspecting his army himself, regiment by regiment. He spoke to the troops, viewed all the parks, all the light batteries, and gave instructions to all the officers and gunners. He afterwards went to inspect the ambulances, and the means of conveyance for the wounded. He returned to dine at his bivouac, and sent for all his marshals: he enlarged upon all that they ought to do the next day, and all that it was possible for the enemy to attempt. It would require a volume to detail all that emanated from his mind in those twenty-four hours.

The Russian army was seen arriving the whole afternoon, and taking positions very near to our right. The emperor was ready either to receive the attack of the enemy, or to attack himself.

In the evening of the 1st of December there was on our extreme right an irregular firing of small-arms, which was kept up so late as to give the emperor some uneasiness. He had already sent several times to inquire whence it proceeded; he sent for me, and ordered me to go as far as the communication between the division of General Legrand and that of General Friant, and not to return until I had ascertained what the Russians were about, adding that this firing must be designed to cover some movement.

I had not very far to go; for no sooner had I got to the right of Legrand's division than I saw his advanced guard, which was repulsed from a village situated at the foot of the position of the Russians, who wished to possess themselves of it for the purpose of thence debouching on our right: the nature of the ground favoured their movement, which was already begun when I arrived. The moon shone very bright nevertheless, they did not continue this movement, because the night soon became overcast; they were content with concentrating themselves on that point, so as to deploy rapidly at day-break. I returned with all possible expedition to relate what I had seen: I found the emperor lying upon straw, and so fast asleep, in a hut which the soldiers had made for him, that I was obliged to shake in order to awaken him. I made my report: he desired me to repeat it; sent for Marshal Soult, and mounted his horse, to go himself and inspect his whole line, and to see the movement of the Russians on his right: he approached as near to it as possible. On his return through the lines of bivouac, he was recognised by the soldiers, who spontaneously lighted torches of straw: this communicated from one end of the army to the other in a moment there was a regular illumination, and the air was rent with shouts of Vive l'Empereur!

'The emperor returned very late; and though he continued to take repose, he was not without uneasiness as to what might be the result of the movement of his right on the following day. He was awake and stirring by day-break, to get the whole army under arms in silence.

There was a very thick fog, which enveloped all our bivouacs, so that it was impossible to distinguish objects at the distance of ten paces. It was favourable to us, and gave us time to arrange ourselves. This army had been so well trained in the camp of Boulogne, that one could rely on the good condition in which each soldier kept his arms and accoutrements. As it became light, the fog seemed disposed to clear off. Absolute silence prevailed to the very extremity of the horizon: nobody would ever have thought that there were so many men, and so many noisy engines of destruction, enveloped in so small a space.

The emperor sent me again to the extreme right to watch the movement of the Russians: they began to debouch on General Legrand, when I had got very near him: but, on account of the fog, I could not well judge of the movement. I returned to make my report. It was scarcely seven in the morning: the fog had already cleared away so much, that I had no reason to follow the line of the troops, lest I should lose my way. (We were about two hundred toises from the Russians.)

The emperor saw his whole army, infantry and cavalry, formed into columns by divisions. All the marshals were near him, and teazed him to begin: he resisted their importunities, till the attack of the Russians on his right became brisker: he had sent word to Marshal Davoust to support General Legrand, who was soon afterwards attacked, and had his whole division engaged. When the emperor judged, by the briskness of the fire, that the attack was serious, he dismissed all the marshals, and ordered them to begin.

This onset of the whole army at once had something imposing: you might hear the words of command of the individual officers. It marched, as if to exercise, to the very foot of the position of the Russians, halting at times to rectify its distances and its directions. General Saint Hilaire attacked in front the Russian position, which is called in the country the hill of the Pratzer. He there sustained a tremendous fire of musketry, which would have staggered any one but himself. The fire lasted two hours; he had not a battalion that was not deployed and engaged.

"General Vandamme, who had rather more space to traverse to get within fire of the enemy, came upon the head column, overthrew it, and was master of its position and its artillery in an instant. The emperor immediately marched one of the divisions of Marshal Bernadotte behind Vandamme's division, and a portion of the united grenadiers behind that of Saint Hilaire. He sent orders to Marshal Lannes to

attack promptly and briskly the right of the enemy, that it might not come to the assistance of their left, which was wholly engaged by the movement of the emperor.

The portion of the enemy's army, which had begun its movement upon General Legrand, would have fallen back and reascended the Pratzer; but General Legrand, supported by Friant's division (belonging to Marshal Davoust), followed it so closely that it was forced to fight where it stood, without daring either to retire or to advance. 'General Vandamme, directed by Marshal Soult, and supported by a division of Bernadotte's, made a change of direction by the right flank, for the purpose of turning and attacking all the troops that were before Saint Hilaire's division. This movement was completely successful; and the two divisions, united on the Pratzer itself by this movement, had no farther need of the assistance of Bernadotte's division: they made a second change of direction by their right flank, and descended from the Pratzer to attack in the rear all the troops who were opposed to General Legrand. These troops quitted, for the purpose of attacking the Russians, the position from which the latter had descended during the preceding night to attack General Legrand; they had thus traversed a complete semicircle. The emperor made the united grenadiers and the division of the foot-guards support the movement: it had complete success, and decided the battle.

General Vandamme received a check at the commencement of his first change of direction to the right. The fourth regiment of the line lost one of its eagles in a charge of cavalry made upon it by the Russian guard; but the chasseurs of the guard and the grenadiers on duty about the emperor charged so seasonably, that this accident had no bad consequences.

'It was after the second change of direction to the right of this same division of Vandamme, then in communication with Saint Hilaire's, that the emperor ordered the division of Bernadotte which followed the movement to go right before, and no longer to follow the direction of Vandamme. That division did so; it fought the infantry of the Russian guard, broke it, and drove it fighting a full league; but it returned to its position, nobody could tell why. The emperor, who had followed the movements of Vandamme's division, was exceedingly astonished, on returning in the evening, to find the division of Bernadotte on the spot from which he had himself despatched it in the morning. We shall presently see whether he had reason to be displeased at the retrograde movement of that division.

The left of our army, under Marshal Lannes, and where all our cavalry was under the command of Marshal Murat, had broken and put to flight the whole right of the Russian army, which, at night-fall, took the road to Austerlitz, to join the relics of another portion of that army with which Marshal Soult had been engaged. Had Marshal Bernadotte's division continued marching another half-hour, instead of returning to its first position, it would have been across the road from Austerlitz to Hollitsch, by which the right of the Russian army was retreating. By checking that movement, it prevented the destruction of the latter.

The whole day was a series of manoeuvres, none of which failed; and which cut the Russian army, surprised in a flank movement, into as many pieces as there were heads of columns brought up to attack it. All the troops that had descended from the Pratzer to attack Generals Legrand and Friant were taken on the spot, in conse quence of the movements of the divisions of Saint Hilaire and Vandamme. In short, there were left to us, with the field of battle, 100 pieces of cannon, and 43,000 prisoners of war, exclusively of the wounded and slain, who remained upon the ground. There could scarcely be a more victorious and decisive day.

The emperor came back in the evening, along the whole line where the different regiments of the army had fought. It was already dark he had recommended silence to all who accompanied him, that he might hear the cries of the wounded; he immediately went to the

spot where they were, alighted himself, and ordered a glass of brandy to be given them from the canteen which always followed him. I was with him the whole of that night, during which he remained very late on the field of battle: the squadron of his escort passed the whole night upon it in taking the cloaks from the Russian dead, for the purpose of covering the wounded with them. He himself ordered a large fire to be kindled near each of them, sent about for a mustermaster, and did not retire till he had arrived; and, having left him a picket of his own escort, he enjoined him not to quit these wounded till they were all in the hospital. These brave men loaded him with blessings, which found the way to his heart much better than all the flatteries of courtiers. It was thus that he won the affection of his soldiers, who knew that when they suffered it was not his fault; and, therefore, they never spared themselves in his service.

The night was so dark, that we had been obliged to pass through Brunn, so that it was late when Marshal Davoust received the order; and he could do no more that day than reunite his corps, and approach near enough to reconnoître the enemy.'-Memoirs of the Duke de Rovigo.

CHAP. XXV.

Interview of Napoleon and the Emperor of AustriaTreaty of Presburg-Consequences of the CampaignConduct of Prussia-Battle of Trafalgar-Financial Difficulties-Ouvrard-his Character and Treatment by the Emperor.

On the

ON the day after the battle, the emperor, who was at the castle of Austerlitz, received a visit from Prince de Lichtenstein, the same whom Mack had sent to negotiate when before the walls of Ulm. On this occasion the prince was sent by the emperor Francis II. to request an interview with Napoleon. This request was immediately agreed to, and the ceremonies to be observed on the occasion were arranged at once. 4th of December Napoleon proceeded on horseback to the place appointed, which was a mill about three leagues from Austerlitz. The Emperor of Austria arrived in a calash; and as soon as he was observed Napoleon alighted from his horse and advanced to meet him, attended by his aides-de-camp. Napoleon embraced Francis II. on meeting him. During the interview Napoleon had only Berthier beside him, and the Emperor of Austria was attended by Prince de Lichtenstein. What a situation for the heir of Charles V.! The emperors remained about two hours, and again embraced at parting.

On his return from this interview, Napoleon, who never for a moment lost sight of his policy, roused him